Tag: Digital evolution

Sylvie Forbin is the Deputy Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, an agency of the United Nations. At the just concluded conference on the role of the publishing industry, which held in Yaounde, Cameroon, she told SAMSON FOLARIN about the importance of publishing in the economic and educational development of African countries.

Why is WIPO organising this conference at this time?

Let me start by saying that WIPO is a UN specialised organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland. It deals with intellectual property, which is broadly separated into three branches: patents, trademarks (the two are usually called industrial property) and copyright, which serves to incentivize and protect the creative industries including the publishing sector, which comprises part of the core of the copyright system.

Here’s an example: Authors’ outputs are creations of the mind, but there is a chain of actors and stakeholders – the publishers, distributors, booksellers and others all the way down to the consumers, who are at the end of the chain. All of these stakeholders participate in the business and activities of what we call publishing.

The copyright system helps by assigning different rights in the publishing sector, including the right to reproduce texts. The author’s publisher is the one who can allow the work, or a certain portion of it, to be copied or reproduced under certain conditions. When there is an agreement this results in a licensing agreement. In essence, the rightsholder determines in which condition he wants the work to be publicly exploited.

Our organisation’s objective is to help establish the international copyright infrastructure and promote the other elements of the infrastructure, including the management of the rights, which can ultimately help authors and other creators earn a living.

In Africa, we hope to be able to help countries look at some of the recipes that have been successful in other parts of the world, in particular to construct effective, appropriate copyright policies and access educational materials.

WIPO works with copyright issues around the world, but Africa is a major priority for us. In 2034, half of the world’s working population will be in Africa. Africa’s human potential is well known: You have youth power and youth assets. But to transform these assets into the real potential of growth and prosperity, new and improved educational efforts are crucial. So, we see the link between books and youth empowerment in your countries. Education equals increased employment prospects and ability to harness global business trends. That is why Africa is a priority and why we have organised this conference.

The publishing sector in African countries is not big enough, although it is said to have a $1bn potential. Do you think that, based on the peculiar challenges confronting the continent, this is realizable?

Very well, due to its large and growing populations, Africa represents big markets and lots of demands, particularly among knowledge-hungry youth. But “the offer,” or a supply of homegrown printed educational material, has much room to expand. In a lot of other countries, they may produce very good ideas, but there is no demand because of their small population. Here, in Africa, you have a large market – so that is a very important component to long-term success in the publishing industry.

We believe that well-organized publishing sectors with strong the infrastructure provide the right kind of incentives for publishers, who seek returns on their investments in the markets where they operate. There is a tremendous market in Africa, but publishers are withholding investments because of weak value chains.

To empower the publishing sector, you need to have a good legal framework that makes it clear what roles will be played by different actors, according to investment or other parameters.

A legal framework needs to be put in place – this is key. And in this framework, there is a large role to be played by the collective management system. This is the entity that can interact with multiple revenue streams to get earnings for an author through his publisher. They may also be the party that can say, for a particular time, that a work can be copied based on an on agreement. Or they can give rights to copy to a library or a school after payment of a certain amount of money. This gives a clear, legal structure that is conducive to business activity in the publishing sector – on the supply side.

But we also need greater commitments from public sector actors, especially ministries of education. When governments have decided on the curricula and pedagogical lines, ministries can work with the private sector to produce and distribute appropriate educational texts, while organising the elements of the market, including the distributors. When it is clear that every single person who invests in a segment of this chain will see returns on their investments, it is good for everybody. This kind of a win-win situation, provides incentives for publishers to produce the next book. Whether in education or culture, it is important that the money comes back; there should be a commercial basis.

One major problem militating against the publishing sector in Africa is piracy. How is WIPO fighting this to help African countries?

Piracy and counterfeiting are dangerous for the business of publishing because they undermine the legal framework while reducing incentives for everyone in the publishing value chain we discussed above. Even if a pirated copy is perfect and the consumer is not even aware they are in possession of a counterfeit work, the authors, publishers, book sellers and others suffer. They are deprived of a return on their investments and that is a big issue. Another area at WIPO is working on building respect for intellectual property via a range of activities including capacity building with national judges and others. We generally work on the international level, but do try to meet the demand from countries seeking insights into how to best design enforceable legal environments where local law enforcement can fight the scourge of piracy.

Most African countries lack a policy drive to enable the publishing sector to realise its potential. What is WIPO doing on reaching those in government?

This is very important. At this conference, we are gathering professionals because we believe they are an important part of the sector. But we do a lot with governments, at their request. We do a lot of awareness building and help with advocacy campaigns. Usually, we do this bilaterally, in conversations with individual governments. But considering the common issues faced by many countries, maybe in the future we will try to meet with permanent secretaries of, say, five countries at a time, and explain these issues to them and what is at stake. Basically, I want to work with policy makers as well as private sector actors, to help all sides see that a strong, balanced copyright system is in everyone’s interest.

Digital publishing is currently challenging the traditional method of publishing. What do you see in the future of publishing?

I think the two will always be complimentary. We will not have a phasing out of written books and print technologies because of digital publishing. You don’t find what you see on the Internet in books. So, digital evolution will not kill books. It’s very important that we don’t always have our eyes on the screen. It is good we have relationship with books. It is important that we create good infrastructure in terms of translatability of the works, and digital management of the rights. It is important that countries are able to get to the worldwide market, which will be online. There is a mix and balance to be struck between digital and print publishing, including a specific licensing scheme. For example, based on agreement between two countries, a book may be produced elsewhere in digital format, then printed here in Africa for schoolkids who may lack access to tablets – they can have the written versions in their hands – boosting access to knowledge in support of economic development, as we discussed at the beginning.

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